Cream hair treating preparations



Patented Mar. 15, 1949 CREAM HAIR TREATING PREPARATIONS Raymond E. Reed, David Tenenbaum, and Marion Den Beste, St. Paul, Minn, assignors to Raymond Laboratories, Inc., St. Paul, Minn., a corporation of Minnesota No Drawing. Application March 7, 1945, Serial No. 581,548

I 4 Claims. 1 H

This invention relates to preparations for use in thetreatment of hair, and is concerned particularly with liquid cream preparations for use in hair molding processes and specifically in permanent hair waving processes.

It is an object of the invention to provide cream hair treating solutions having characteristics heretofore unknown, including stability, unimpaired chemical strength, suitable viscosity and opacity, and favorable wetting properties.

Before the era of cold waving, solutions for use in hot waving processes were sometimes creamed by the addition thereto of sulfonated oils. In an effort to secure suitable solutions. oils of varying degree of sufonation were utilized. To attain complete opacity and a high degree of milkiness, oils of low degree of sulfonation or solubility were necessary. Such oils, however, were found to be unstable in the hair treating solutions; with time the emulsion would crack and oftentimes unsightly precipitates would be formed. This kind of separation was responsible for many permanent waving failures due to lessened or non-uniform chemical strength of the applied solution. Furthermore, such oils were objectionable in odor and exerted an inhibiting effect on the chemical activity of the solution requiring unduly high concentration of the active waving ingredient. It was necessary therefore, if satisfactorily opacifying oils were used, to bottle them separately from the treating solutions to be mixed just prior to use.' Even then the wetting properties of the solution were not fully satisfactory and the oils were difilcult to rinse from the hair.

Serious consequences of this sort arising from the use of oils of low degree of solubility forced compromises in the direction of oils of higher degrees of sulfonation or solubility. Immediately the degree of sulfonation was increased suiilcient to give stability and acceptable wave strength, however, unacceptable reduction in viscosity and opacity was encountered.

With the advent of cold waving solutions containing more chemically active keratin reducing agents, such as thioglycolic acid, instability of a mixture of a sulfonated oil with the treating solution became acute. The oils cracked out badly, even overnight in the case of some solutions, and redispersion was exceedingly'diflicult, if not impossible, so that even in small concentrations the waving efficiency of the solution was profoundly affected.

The attainment of a stable cream cold waving solution having the desired milky appearance, increased viscosity, and proper wetting and rinsing properties appeared an impossibility in the light of the disheatening experiences with less chemically active hot waving solutions. The best the art could do was to package cold waving solutions with accompanying separately packaged wetting agents to be mixed with the reducing solution just prior to use. These agents did not, however, opacify the solutions and even with the separate packaging, decomposition of the added agent upon mixing and loss in eilectiveness of the waving solution occurred even with only short standing.

Preparations of this invention are creamed by the addition thereto of small amounts of particular creaming agents which have been found to possess unique properties that avoid the previously outlined difficulties. These agents are sulfated aromatic ether alcohols in the form of an aryloxy polyalkylene ether sulfonate, commonly referred to as sulfonated ethers, as distinguished from sulfonated oils.

Cream hair treating solutions prepared with these agents exhibit greatly improved stability-so that they can be stored without separation of the ingredients and without serious decomposition of the sulfonated ether or failure of chemical efliciency. Mixtures thereof may be bottled by a manufacturer in proper proportions for most effective use, and distributed as a cream solution with assurance that the homogenity and stability of the solution, even after prolonged storage, will be such as to provide suitably uniform application to the hair of the designed proportion of ingredients, even when the bottle is not shaken prior to use, and satisfactory waving resu ts.

The solutions are completely opaque and milky in appearance, they have suitable increased viscosity over that of the uncreamed solution-reducing dripping and increasing the amount of solution held by the hairand good wetting properties, both valuable characteristics from the standpoints of effectiveness and ease of application. The hair receives the solution very rapidly and the task of distributing the solution through the tress is simplified. Furthermore, the solution may be readily rinsed from the hair after treatment.

A typical solution is one containing:

No. 2,115,192, and comprises apaste containing I approximately 30% of sulfonated ether compound, the remainder being substantially all water. The concentration of the sulfonated ether compound in the hair treating solution is therefore approximately 5%. This particular concentration may be varied although we have found a solution as above described to' be highly desirable for hair waving from the standpoint of wetting properties. In some hair waving solutions we have usedconcentrations running as high as and more without loss in effectiveness of the solution. In the case of shampoos, the sulfonated ether compound may be increased to or more.

Sulfonated ethers find equally effective use in the preparation of cream solutions of other hair treating agents, including those containing other keratin reducing agents such as the amide of thioglycolic acid, various sulphites, cysteine hydrochloride, thioglycerine and various thio acids such as thiomalic, thiopropionic and thiosalicylic, or their amides, whether designed for hot or cold waving use.

A portion of the sulfonated ether may be replaced by acrylic acid derivatives, inclusive of copolymers, as described and claimed in application Serial No. 581,549, filed simultaneously herewith.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our prior co-pendlng applications, Serial No. 430,474, filed February 11, 1942, now Patent Number 2,405,166, and Serial No. 454,226, filed August medium containing an aryloxy polyalkylene ether sulfonate, said composition being opaque and milky in appearance and having a viscosity higher than that of an aqueous solution of said reducing agent of the sameconcentration containing none of said sulfonate.

3. A cream hair treating composition for Si in hair molding processes comprising a keratir reducing agent dissolved in an aqueous medium containing not over about 15% by weight of an aryloxy polyalkylene ether sulfonate, said composition being opaque and milky in appearance and having a viscosity higher than that of an aqueous solution of said reducing agent of the same concentration containing none of said sulfonate.

4. A cream hair treating composition for use in hairmolding processes comprising a thioglycollate dissolved in an aqueous medium containing from about 5% to about 15% by weight of an aryloxy polyalkylene ether sulfonate, said composition being opaque and milky in appearance and having a viscosity higher than that of an aqueous solution of said thioglycollate of the same concentration containing none of said sulfonate.

RAYMOND E. REED. DAVID TENENBAUM. MARION DEN BESTE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS are of record in the Publishing Co. of New York, 1937, page 141, entry Milky permanent wave solution. I

Powers: "Bulletin of the National Formulary Committee," Vol. X, No. 8-9, Aug.-Sept. 1942, pages 173-175, 215.

Conn. Agr. Experiment Station, 46th Report on Food Products and 34th Report on Drug Products, 1941." Bulletin 460, May 1942. Pages 448- 450. 

